FILIPINO businessman Romeo Roxas, who is in the final stages of buying more than $20 million worth of cattle stations in the Northern Territory, says Australia's untapped north has the potential America's west did 200 years ago.
The banker, property developer and lawyer, who is developing large tracts of land on the east coast of the Philippines, already has farmland investments in western NSW. But it is the north Mr Roxas sees as the great opportunity.
"If you look at Australia's north it is like America 200 years ago," Mr Roxas told The Australian Financial Review.
"Australia has not really paid too much attention to it but the north has vast resources and potential which is untapped."
Mr Roxas' comments come as Austrade's Northern Australia Investment Forum started on Sunday, with dozens of international and domestic investors investigating project opportunities.
Participants include: China Investment Corporation; Shanghai CRED Real Estate, which was a potential bidder of Australia's largest cattle station owner S. Kidman & Co; Hailiang Group, which has already purchased cattle property in Australia; the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company, the Agricultural Bank of Taiwan and Macquarie Group.
The forum was set up as an initiative of the federal government's white paper on developing Northern Australia, which attempts to encourage development plans for the next 20 years to unlock the potential of the region.
Mr Roxas' purchase is likely to include the 560,000-hectare Murray Downs station and the 265,000-hectare Epenarra Station north of Alice Springs. He said the quantity of water in the north was more than enough, but it needed to be adequately stored in order to lift agricultural productivity.
"The water should be dammed and used for agriculture. Most of this land can be used for agriculture that will help the world as well as Australia," he said. "The value of the land depends on its productivity."
Mr Roxas, who has a foundation in the Philippines which seeks to educate the country's indigenous people, would not comment on regulations that have slowed development plans in the north. He said Australia was a strong consideration for most investors.
"Anyone who has some sense knows that Australia is a good place to invest. I have invested in the US, and cattle ranches there are very expensive - it's nothing like Australia."
Mr Roxas owns a cattle ranch in Monterey County, California.
